A Case for Participatory Disease Surveillance of the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

The coronavirus disease pandemic requires the deployment of novel surveillance strategies to curtail further spread of the disease in the community. Participatory disease surveillance mechanisms have already been adopted in countries for the current pandemic. India, with scarce resources, good telecom support, and a not-so-robust heath care system, makes a strong case for introducing participatory disease surveillance for the prevention and control of the pandemic. India has just launched Aarogya Setu, which is a first-of-its-kind participatory disease surveillance initiative in India. This will supplement the existing Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme in India by finding missing cases and having faster aggregation, analysis of data, and prompt response measures. This newly created platform empowers communities with the right information and guidance, enabling protection from infection and reducing unnecessary contact with the overburdened health care system. However, caution needs to be exercised to address participation from digitally isolated populations, ensure the reliability of data, and consider ethical concerns such as maintaining individual privacy.